This invention relates generally to animal husbandry and more particularly to a pet litter box with a removable litter screen.
Unconfined indoor pets such as cats require sanitary facilities. Prior patents disclose many different design approaches for litter boxes, some of awesome complexity; however, the most common arrangement remains a simple open-topped box or pan, usually made of plastic, in which one places a quantity of absorbent granular material. Pets who find this arrangement attractive tend to perform their excratory functions in the proper place.
Upon entering a home occupied by cats, a stranger may notice the odor, even when pet sanitary facilities are carefully maintained. Changing the litter often helps keep odors down; but frequent maintenance drives up litter costs and the inconvenience of toting bags of litter home from the store. For many people, pet box cleaning is a low-priority chore that tends to get put off. But eventually, the litter winds up in the trash, contributing to the volume of the country's burgeoning landfills.
It would be desirable to provide pet owners with a litter box which dramatically reduced litter consumption, but was nevertheless attractive to pets and relatively odor-free. Consistent with the goal of economy and ease, such a box should be both inexpensive and simple to maintain.
Some prior inventors have taken the approach of the present invention, by providing a box or pan with a screen or grate that supports the litter. This way, wet litter does not sit on the bottom of the pan--air can circulate beneath the litter to keep it drier. One such device is described by inventor Van der Wall in U.S. Pat. No. 3,476,083, which depicts a pan-within-a-pan arrangement. The upper pan has an entirely open bottom. A grate is seated just above the bottom, and a screen is supported by the grate. Litter is spread on the screen. A number of other patents follow this general approach.
Each of the prior patents of which I am aware is unnecessarily complicated; others would be difficult or inconvenient to servicer or are commercially impractical.